Phenibut Withdrawl

GABA plays a pivotal role in many crucial mental activities.

Its main job is to antagonize the excitatory neurotransmitter, glutamate, to modulate anxiety and stress.¹²

In turn, many people use Phenibut for its equally calming effects and relaxation benefits.

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What is Phenibut

Phenibut is a powerful mood-boosting nootropic meant to treat anxiety insomnia, and other mental issues.

Initially formulated for Russian soldiers in the mid-60s, it mimics the calming actions of the neurotransmitter, Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA).

What Does it Do

Phenibut works as a neuropsychiatric drug that stimulates dopaminergic activity.

When taken in low doses (20mg/kg), phenibut has nootropic effects on cognitive function and behavior.³

Because the FDA has not approved Phenibut, most users take it recreationally to control anxiety attacks, fatigue, excessive fear, tension, sleep disorders, and cognitive disorders.⁴⁵

Who Takes Phenibut

Phenibut usage is highest amongst people diagnosed with anxiety, depression, phobias, and sleep disorders.⁶

Phenibut also works as a medication before and after surgery. It is also helpful in treating post-traumatic stress, speech impediments, and vestibular disorders.

Signs of Abuse

Not everyone who abuses phenibut uses it for recreation only.

Some people experience extreme withdrawal symptoms after the initial treatment phase. This forces continued usage, usually increasing the dosage for them due to increased tolerance.⁷⁸

Addiction symptoms include severe anxiety, insomnia, aggressive and irritable behavior, and hallucinations.

Phenibut Withdrawal Signs and Symptoms

Like any other substance addiction, withdrawing from phenibut comes with a host of uncomfortable and potentially severe symptoms.

Some more serious than others.

Once observed, one should address them as quickly as possible to avoid further complications.

Anxiety, Depression & Nervousness

A person having anxiety attacks before using phenibut may experience worsened anxiety and nervous attacks after sudden cessation.⁹

Changes in dopamine and GABA concentrations also trigger depression.¹⁰

Phenibut also alters the communication between neurons, causing less excitation and more depressive symptoms.¹¹

Sleep Disorders

Melatonin and serotonin levels drop after phenibut withdrawal and disrupt the body’s normal circadian rhythm, resulting in insomnia.¹²

Excessive GABA from phenibut abuse also results in hypersomnia. Daytime sleepiness, difficulty in awakening, and cognitive dysfunction are some of the characteristics of hypersomnia.¹³

Cravings for More Phenibut

Because phenibut builds tolerance, your body craves for more after stopping. Users report that the usual dose doesn’t give them the desired effect after a time so they add more. If cravings are not properly managed, withdrawal symptoms begin to manifest.¹⁴

Reduced Appetite

Many patients report changes in eating behavior after phenibut withdrawal as the body’s way of coping with sudden chemical changes.¹⁵

This leads to an overall lowering of cognitive function in phenibut users.

How to Reduce Withdrawal Symptoms

Taper Off

Tapering off is one of the most effective ways to temper phenibut withdrawal symptoms. Studies documented that tapering off by at least 10mg per week lessens withdrawal symptoms.²⁵

Other resources, however, recommend decreasing 0-50mg per day for a slow taper and 50-100mg per day for a regular taper. Beware of drastic decreases as it can increase withdrawal symptoms.²⁶

Other resources, however, recommend decreasing 0-50mg per day for a slow taper and 50-100mg per day for a regular taper. Beware of drastic decreases as it can increase withdrawal symptoms.

Use Phenibut Alternatives

While phenibut is considered a nootropic and is useful as an alternative to more profound drugs in its own right, it’s wise to use more natural nootropics to wean off short-term phenibut use.

Certain nootropics can mimic phenibut’s effects and therefore prevent dependence and withdrawal symptoms.

Qualia Mind

Qualia Mind is a powerful nootropic that improves memory, mood, and energy through its potent combination of 28 high-quality ingredients designed to improve brain health.Qualia Mind users regularly report benefits like calm mood, improved focus, and better sleep.It also has high pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)levels that stimulate mitochondrial synthesis, effectively helping mental processes and learning.²⁷

Not only that, Qualia Mind has ingredients that may help treat depression and other mood issues.

Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral that works to improve the central nervous system’s function, especially for neurotransmission and signaling. Many studies document the positive effects of magnesium as a therapy for psychiatric disorders.²⁸²⁹

Magnesium also plays a significant role in brain function and mood. It is very effective in treating anxiety, enhancing memory, and maintaining overall neuron health.³⁰³¹

It also showed potential as an adjunct therapy with antidepressants. As a phenibut alternative, magnesium enhances the GABA responses to achieve the desired antidepressant effect.³²

Taurine

Taurine is essential in brain development.

Like phenibut, it also protects against glutamate toxicity and adverse effects of GABA neuroinhibition.³³³⁴

It also influences neuronal activity and the cerebral cortex’s development and protects the body from oxidative stress.³⁵³⁶³⁷

It is also beneficial as a therapeutic agent for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. Since taurine limits glutamate, the NMDA receptors avoid calcium overload, leading to cellular damage and inflammation.

Taurine also stabilizes the insulin levels and prevents contractile malfunctioning of the cardiac and skeletal muscles.³⁸³⁹

It effectively reduces muscular twitching, making it a good alternative in treating phenibut withdrawal symptoms.

L-Theanine

L-theanine is an amino acid known for its relaxation and anxiolytic benefits. It is also a low-risk alternative treatment for sleep disorders since it works in tandem with GABA to promote sleep.⁴⁰

It also reduces stress and prevents stress-related conditions by modulating stress hormone output.⁴¹

Not only that, it improves the cognitive faculty, verbal fluency, and working memory, and attention in persons diagnosed with schizophrenia.

L-theanine also shows potential in treating fatigue and promoting alertness and feelings of contentedness and calmness.⁴²⁴³

In the brain, L-theanine promotes the generation of alpha waves, which result in a relaxed and alert state.⁴⁴

It is also a good neuroprotector, preventing neuronal death in the hippocampus and tempers the adverse effects of reactive oxygen species.⁴⁵

Ashwagandha, KSM-66

KSM-66, known as the world’s best Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), contains anti-stress and anti-inflammatory components. It’s an adaptogenic herb that helps modulate stress and manage hysteria, anxiety, memory issues, among many other things.⁴⁶⁴⁷

It mimics the GABA effect on neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases. Ashwagandha has many neuroprotective benefits. Evidence shows a reversal of atrophy of neurons and loss of synapses between neurons, effectively improving persons’ cognitive capacity with these diseases.⁴⁸

Ashwagandha also helps manage tardive dyskinesia due to antipsychotic medication. The main characteristic of which includes the uncontrolled movement of the face and body due to antipsychotic medication.

As an adaptogen, Ashwagandha is an excellent overall treatment for relaxation and improving sleep and stress resistance.⁴⁹⁵⁰

Reishi Mushroom

Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum)is known for its antidepressant, antioxidative, and anti-anxiety properties.⁵¹

Reishi mushroom is also suitable for enhancing pentobarbital effects in sleep latency, making it a useful adjunct therapy for sleep disorders associated with phenibut withdrawal or as an alternative to phenibut therapy.⁵²

Lingzhi mushroom (another name for Reishi)presents antioxidant effects and helps reverse damage caused by oxidative stress. It also helps control insulin levels, which is also one contributor to depressive symptoms.⁵³

In addition, components of reishi mushroom also inhibit acetylcholinesterase action that reduces fatigue and promotes neuronal survival. As a result, the continued intake of reishi mushroom extract stops the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

NAC

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N-Acetylcysteine is an amino acid used as an antioxidant supplement to prevent glutamate dysregulation, oxidative stress, and inflammation. There is also sufficient evidence that NAC is useful for managing addiction and substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, OCD, and mood disorders.⁵⁴

In schizophrenia, NAC helps control neuronal inflammation, promote neurogenesis, and repair damage in the neurons caused by prolonged inflammation. It also showed potential as an adjunct therapy to clozapine in clozapine-resistant schizophrenic patients.⁵⁵

NAC also works to inhibit glutamate in the brain.

Too much glutamate kills the brain neurons resulting in neurodegenerative diseases like schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder.⁵⁶

GABA

Since Phenibut’s primary mode of action is promoting GABA over glutamate, GABA makes a great phenibut alternative.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that works to balance mental health. When GABA levels are low, psychiatric disorders like bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia.⁵⁷

GABA works by modulating anxiety-related responses and stimulates neuronal function and behavioral processes of the amygdala, the part of the brain that induces fear and anxiety. It also plays a significant role in episodic memory.⁵⁸

GABA was first introduced as an anti-epileptic drug but later administered as a food supplement to increase the GABA concentration in persons with acrophobia. Studies revealed an increase in brain alpha waves, which indicates a relaxed and alert state in subjects.⁵⁹

It showed potential in treating excessive fear and phobias, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders in place of phenibut or as a treatment for phenibut withdrawal symptoms.⁶⁰

Try Biohacking

Biohacking is another alternative to phenibut. These are devices, practices, and formulations that can improve the body’s GABA levels to prevent anxiety and other mental disorders.

Apollo Wearable

Apollo Neuro Wearable is a biohacking device you can wear on your wrist or ankle that sends a combination of vibrations to stimulate the body’s parasympathetic nervous system. These vibrations increase the heart rate variability (HRV), which equates to a healthier mind.⁶¹

It has seven modes to select from, each with a specific action on your mental health.

It helps manage symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression and improves sleep and focus for better performance.

Read more about Apollo Neuro Wearables and what it can do for your mental health.

Yoga/Meditation

Yoga and meditation relax the mind, improves focus, and achieves mindfulness. These are alternative therapies for depression and other mental issues, pain management, and sleep disorders.

Yoga improves the serotonin and GABA levels and decreases the cortisol levels as an effective intervention for depression, stress, anxiety, fatigue, and burnout.⁶²⁶³

It also activates the parasympathetic nervous system to balance neurological health and function.

Sufficient data also supports the effectiveness of meditation in managing substance abuse withdrawal symptoms, such as in phenibut.⁶⁴

Probiotics

Probiotics play a role in improving GABA levels while striking a balance between GABA’s inhibitory action and glutamate excitation action. A healthy gut microbiota improves the brain-gut axis interaction, positively affecting the brain’s emotional and cognitive centers.⁶⁵

A healthy gut microbiome induces healthy GABA, serotonin, and dopamine production. These are all neurotransmitters known for their calming, mood-boosting benefits.

Adding probiotics in the diet has shown improvements in the response of epileptic children and reduced symptoms in anxiety, depression, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and other neurodegenerative diseases.⁶⁶

Balance Blood Sugar

Balancing blood sugar levels is another biohack that can improve phenibut withdrawal symptoms. People with unbalanced blood sugar levels experience more anxiety and eating disorders compared with healthy persons.⁶⁷⁶⁸

In fact there is strong evidence that points to diet modification improving hypoglycemia symptoms and anxiety disorders.

Diet patterns also present a strong relationship with depressive symptoms, citing high glycemic foods as one of the culprits in depression.⁶⁹⁷⁰

Factors That Affect Withdrawal Severity

Concurrent Alcohol Abuse

Clinical reports show that alcohol use prolongs and increases the severity of phenibut withdrawal symptoms.⁷¹

Use of Other Recreational Drugs

Phenibut withdrawal symptoms are magnified with recreational drug use resulting in aggressive behavior, severe hallucinations, and suicidal thoughts.⁷²

Phenibut Withdrawal Management

The American Addiction Center recommends using baclofen as a medical detox to temper the effects of phenibut withdrawal. The use of biohacks is an even better way to detox without adding more drugs into your body since baclofen is still associated with anxiety and mood disorders.⁷³

When you go to the ER for treatment, don’t forget to bring the phenibut container so your attending physician can assess it more.

References